Johor Bahru (JB) is great for a weekend getaway for some affordable food and shopping especially with the latest ringgit exchange rate (1 SGD to about 3 Malaysian Ringgit) but getting there can be quite a hassle at times – if you drive, you can spend hours stuck in the causeway jam; if you take a bus, you will likely also get caught in the same jam and still have to endure the hours of queuing at the Malaysian customs checkpoint. Walking along the causeway is another option but you will have to endure the vehicle fumes, hot weather and some parts of the causeway where you have to cross quickly amidst the busy traffic.

Now there is another option for you – a shuttle train service between Woodlands Train Checkpoint and Johor Bahru (JB) Sentral train station. It is run by KTM and called Shuttle Tebrau train service. The ride from Woodlands Train Checkpoint to JB Sentral by Shuttle Tebrau KTM train takes just five minutes. The Shuttle Tebrau train ticket (for the Woodlands – JB Sentral journey) costs S$5 from Woodlands and RM5 from Johor Bahru.

Getting to Woodlands Train Checkpoint

The Woodlands Train Checkpoint is not within walking distance from Woodlands MRT station. Getting to Woodlands Train Checkpoint is straightforward by car and taxi – there is a drop-off point as you can see in the picture below. Do note that you do not end up at the other Woodlands Checkpoint where buses, cars and motorcycles go to cross the causeway to Malaysia – if your car ends up there, it will be quite a hassle for you to get back to Singapore (I am not sure if the immigration officials even allow for that) or you will have to go all the way to JB and come back from there.

If you are taking public transport, you can take buses from the following stations along the North-South line:

Kranji MRT – go to the bus stop opposite station. You will see long queues waiting for bus 170 at the bus stop beside the station – don’t queue there

Bus 170 (ensure that this is a 170 red plate which states Woodlands Train Checkpoint/JB Larkin – other 170 buses go to the Woodlands checkpoint)

The Woodlands Train Checkpoint bus stop is quite near to the taxi stand you see below (just a 2-3 minute walk away).

There are many other buses from Changi Airport (Transtar Express TS1 (S$10)), Resorts World Sentosa (Transtar Express TS8 (S$7)) and Queen Street Bus Terminal (Singapore-Johor Express (S$4) or the Causeway Link Express (S$2.50)) to Woodlands Checkpoint (not the Woodlands Train Checkpoint). If you had boarded one of these buses or one of the public transport buses to reach Woodlands Checkpoint – don’t worry, you can still walk to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint via a bridge (just make sure you don’t clear immigration customs before you do that).

There are a total of seven trips from Johor and another seven from Woodlands every day. Each trip can carry about 320 passengers. The departure times from JB Sentral are 5.30am, 7am, 8.30am, 4pm, 5.30pm, 7pm and 10pm. From Woodlands, it’s 6.30am, 8am, 9.30am, 5pm, 6.30pm, 8pm and 11pm. Do note there is a break in train service from late morning to early afternoon (last morning Shuttle Tebrau train from Singapore departs at 9.30am and first afternoon train from Singapore departs at 5pm – this is similar for the JB Sentral departure timings.

You can buy your Shuttle Tebrau train tickets online at https://intranet.ktmb.com.my/e-ticket/. Payment will be in Malaysian ringgit and can be made by Singapore credit card. There is a RM$2 admin charge on top of the ticket price (RM$16). You will need to register an account at that KTM train ticket website and you will also be prompted to select seats – just anyhow choose – it is free seating. You will need your passport number to complete the purchase. Once you have purchased your Shuttle Tebrau tickets, remember to print it out – you will need to show it to the KTM staff at the Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

You can also buy the Shuttle Tebrau train tickets over the counter at the KTM office on level 1 – as you enter the Woodlands Train Checkpoint building, the KTM ticketing office is on level 1 on your right. You can purchase tickets here up to 20 minutes before the train is scheduled to depart. Payment is by Singapore dollars only. After you bought your tickets (or if you already have your printed e-tickets), go to level 2.

At level 2, you will see a sign “Queue for departing train passengers”. This is the entrance to the immigration checkpoints and train platform. We arrived here at 8.35am for our 9.30am Shuttle Tebrau train and the doors to the immigration checkpoints were closed. The queue was quite orderly – waiting passengers were seated on the row of chairs along the wall but things started to get chaotic at around 8.45am as the crowds start to come in and some of the passengers at the back decided to walk to the front to form their own standing queue, disregarding the “sitting” queue (those seated at the chairs along the wall) and then everyone started scrambling as those seated realised that they lost their place in the queue. Before the doors were opened, a KTM staff went around the queue to check the tickets of those in the queue – this is the only time tickets were checked. The doors finally opened at around 9am.

There is quite a distance to walk from the door to the Singapore immigration checkpoint – about a 6-8 minute leisurely walk. After clearing the Singapore immigration, you will need to walk about 3 minutes to reach the Malaysian immigration and customs. Yes. You heard me right – you clear both Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints here at Woodlands Train Checkpoint. After you are done with the Malaysia checkpoint, then you can proceed to the train – no loitering around the train platform is allowed. The train platform is very bare – no chairs and no vendors. There are toilets just after the Malaysia immigration and before you exit to the train platform. At all times, no photography/videography is allowed so no selfies on the train platform.

If you can make it, I suggest going for the earlier Shuttle Tebrau train timings from Woodlands on weekends. We took the 9.30am train and while the train journey was only 5 minutes, our train departed 45 minutes late (leaving Woodlands Train Checkpoint only at 10.15am instead of the scheduled 9.30am departure)! I am not sure of the reason for the delay but I speculate that it could be because the door was open only at 9am for a 9.30am departure plus the huge weekend crowd for the Shuttle Tebrau (i think it was fully booked or overbooked because there were not enough seats for all passengers and quite a number had to stand). Considering the weekend crowd, the authorities should have opened the doors earlier so that some people can clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigration earlier – there could have been a bottleneck that caused the delay. My assumption is that because this is the last train out of Woodlands until 5pm, they could have made the decision to hold off the train departure until everyone had cleared immigration.

The condition of the train itself was quite ok for a 5 minute ride – generally clean – the seats were spacious. Take a look at the next few pictures on what the Shuttle Tebrau KTM train interior and train toilets look like.

If you want to see the busy traffic on the causeway as your Shuttle Tebrau train zooms past them, choose a front-facing seat on your left (sit on your right for the journey back). The train is free seating so you sit anywhere you like as long as there are seats.

Arrival at JB Sentral station via Shuttle Tebrau – you already cleared Malaysian immigration at Woodlands Train Checkpoint so all you have to do is take the escalator up to the next level and follow directions and you are done with your short train journey from Woodlands.

This is the JB Sentral station – lots of food and some shopping and a lot of real estate agents selling the latest condominium development in different parts of Malaysia.

This is the KTM ticketing counter at JB Sentral. From what I have read from other blogs, it seems that to buy a ticket, you need to press for a queue number and wait for your queue number to be called before going to the counter to buy your ticket. I can’t verify this as I took a bus back.

Here comes the exciting part after exiting JB Sentral – this walkway links to great shopping and eating places at City Square and Komtar JBCC all without stepping a foot on the roads of Johor Bahru at all so it is quite safe. We have all heard of horror stories of JB robbery but if you stick to these 2 big malls, you are generally quite safe as you won’t be walking out in the open in isolated alleys. There is a lot of pedestrian traffic from JB Sentral station all the way to the 2 malls.

As you enter the walkway, on the left, you will find City Square with H&M, F.O.S and many others and ….

… on the right, you will find Komtar JBCC – another big shopping mall (a relatively new one).

Hi, i hope by now u’ve visited Singapore more frequently and still enjoy your visits. Like someone mentioned in a previous reply, Singapore now is not what it used to be. Language-wise, in general true blue Singaporeans actually are able to understand and communicate effectively in English. The ones that don’t understand and cannot speak English AT ALL tend to be foreigners who’re from other countries who’ve managed to make S’pore their new home. Many of these foreigners are the NON-EXPATS type fr ctys such as China, India and even some European ctys. There’re also local (Singaporeans) who can’t speak much English due to their upbringing or prior education; usually this wud be some of the older generation or even the younger generation who fell through the cracks somewhere along the line.
Having said all this, there’s also a chance that some S’poreans simply are confused by the accent in which tourists speak English to them. In addition, again like someone mentioned previously, we S’poreans often speak Singlish which may cause us to be relatively hard to understand by some tourists, especially if the tourists are not familiar with Singlish. Nevertheless, i hope u still visit Singapore. Best wishes.

my experience is with the Saturday 9.30am train – the earlier and later trains might depart on time. I suggest checking the road conditions webcam for the causeway traffic before making a decision on bus or train.

You are correct. The train is not worth the hassle. For one thing, why the illogical queue of people on the hot overpass? The waiting room just before Singapore clearance is empty but full of chairs and air con. Because if this silly wait outside, the trains are mostly always late to leave as passengers are still clearing customs well after the departure time. Take the bus..it’s easier and faster and a he’ll of a lot cheaper.

Hey thanks and really appreciate your time doing the review! It’s a really detailed one and must’ve taken you quite a while to do!

You’re the only review I found that clearly shows train passengers will clear customs in a different, and hopefully faster queue from the one for the buses. Which to me would make it worth the $5 then since I don’t go to JB often.

You even put the link there – super convenient for lazy people like me. Will try it out tomorrow (*crosses fingers no train delay !). Thanks very much ! 🙂

hi..i have registered the online e-ticket but when each time i tried to login, an error message pop up and said that my username and password are invalid. I have even tried to register a new one but still the same. Can anyone tell me what’s wrong with it?

Hi…it’s my first trip taking the trip fm JB central to Woodlands checkpoints. It’s worth taking the departure trip fm JB. Why? My sis n I did shopping at Larkin and Angsana …we took bus 170 to Larkin and then a metre Taxi fm the Taxi station . We are always extra careful esp with the many robbery case . Lunch was at the buffet style kampung restaurant just near the bus interchange at Larkin.
With so many shopping items and a trolley with bags …imagine we were so tired to take the normal route so we decided to leave Angsana at 4pm head to JB Sentral n buy tickets back to Woodlands . We arrive at JB Sentral at 4.40pm , quickly buy our tickets n go straight to the train coach free seating . Exactly 5pm it move and in 5 mins reach Woodlands. It was s relief , with our big bags , other passengers helped to bring out our heavy trolley … Be careful of the big gap as you have to stretch your legs to jump over the platform . We wee so happy our singaporean counterparts Chinese and Indians helped us 2 Malay seniors to carry our things . Them clearance at wdlands checkpoint were so smooth , we walked towards the taxi stand only a short distance and reached home safely. Yes …we avoid all the hassle and traffic jams ….and next time , we certainly take shuttle train back to Woodlsnds. No regrets just make sure you are early to get your tickets at least 30 mins before departure. Thank you KTM -JB Sentral-Woodlands ..

Hi! Your article is truly fantastic! Got so many tips and hints. Though I still have to ask some questions for clarifications please. Hope you can help me. My girlfriend and I are scheduled for a trip to KL from SG. We purchased night sleeper coach at 22:30 from JB Sentral to KL Sentral. It says in some sites that there are tickets sold at Woodlands for that Woodland-JB Sentral trip departing at 10 pm but the picture in your article shows the last shuttle to depart Woodlands is at 8pm. Was it bogus or they just simply opened more schedules? And what perfect or ideal time should we allocate ourselves as we leave Singapore for the travel time, some delays, clearance with customs, immigrations and all that at Woodlands to be able to catch the train from JB to KL Sentral at 10:30pm and would the train exaclty depart at 10:30? Because we wish to maximize our last day in Singapore. Hoping you can really assist us with this. We will be coming from the Philippines so everything is new to us. Thank you in advance and have wonderful day!

Hi sorry it may take you awhile reading this. To cut it short, how early or late should we alot ourselves to cover for the travel time from the main city of SG to Woodlands; delays; some errands; walking; waiting time; queueing; immigrations/customs processes and all other factors; to be able to catch our trip at 10:30pm from JB Sentral to KL Sentral. As mentioned in my prevoius email, we just want to maximize our last day in Singapore. It falls on a Saturday by the way. Thank you.

if you are travelling from city area to woodlands by train, pls set aside at least 1 hr 30 min – it will take about 60 min train ride from City Hall to Kranji MRT and then you will need to take a bus from Kranji MRT to the Woodlands Train checkpoint – this will take some time depending on the timing the buses arrive and whether you will be able to get on in view of the crowd. I strongly suggest you take a taxi from either Woodlands, Marsiling or Kranji MRT to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint – please be very clear with the taxi driver – you r going to the Woodlands TRAIN checkpoint – dont let them bring you to Woodlands Checkpoint which is a totally different area from where you want to go.

So in summary, if you are taking public transport, I recommend 2 hours (2.5 hours to play very safe) – customs clearance can take some time and this is excluding time for you to do errands.

Hi! I’m one of the thankful reader of your blog! I am worried about our plan to go to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore. Our first train in JB Sentral in at 10:10 in the morning and I’m really worried that clearing the immigration might take a lot of time and make us miss our train. Can you tell me what time the immigration office opens and how long it would take us to clear it? Any advice would really be appreciated. I really hope we can catch the !0:10 train leaving Johor… T_T

Hi, thank you for the information. Very informative. Just wondering if its a usual thing for tourist to travel from JB to Singapore daily for activities? JB accommodation is cheaper than Singapore side but trying to work out if its worth the saving if travelling by taxi and train daily. Any information in regards to this will be greatly appreciated. Regards

Hi, thank you for the clear direction by train from sg to jb sentral. I have never been to jb before and would like to know how to come back to Singapore from jb sentral by bus. Is it near jb Sentral and would I be able to see the bus station easily. Which bus is more convenient as I stay in Sembawang. Thanks

The bus interchange is just under the JB customs checkpoint – after you clear the Malaysian checkpoints, follow where everyone is going and you will reach the buses. You can buses that go Kranji and then take MRT to Sembawang

Hi I heard that there used to be delays in the departure. is this still happening?
All customs clearance are within the train stations? meaning once you’re out of JB Sentral station or Woodlands station you’re good to go?
Thanks.